An Antares rocket launched to the International Space Station tonight, marking the final flight for this vehicle as we know it.
The 19th commercial resupply service mission from Northrop Grumman (NG-19) lifted off at 8:31 p.m. EDT (0031 GMT on Aug. 2) from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility carrying a batch of cargo, provisions and science experiments to the International Space Station (ISS). This is the final flight for this particular model of Antares rocket, which is set to be replaced with a newer version sometime next year.
Around 8 minutes into the flight, a Cygnus spacecraft separated from Antares’ second stage containing over 8,200 pounds (3,700 kilograms) of cargo for the current ISS crew. That spacecraft is set to arrive at the ISS on Friday (Aug. 4) at 5:54 a.m (0954 GMT). You can watch the docking live here beginning at 4:30 a.m. ET (0930 GMT) courtesy of NASA TV.